The battle for listeners and advertising dollars in Alberta’s uber-competitive private radio market has grown even more intense over the past decade, says ATB Financial’s senior economist, Todd Hirsch.

“With a deluge of online entertainment and hundreds of TV channels for Albertans to choose from, traditional radio broadcasting is hanging in there as an alternative choice for listeners. But the radio industry is both on the rise and the fall,” he explains.

“The total number of privately owned radio stations in the province has grown steadily from 62 in 2001 to 103 last year. That expansion has been facilitated by the additional broadcasting licences from the CRTC over the last 10 years,” he notes.

That’s been good for job growth, he says, with employment at private stations up about 50 per cent to nearly 1,600 on a province-wide basis. The downside? Growing competition has taken a bite out of profits.

“Over the past five years, the annual profit before interest and taxes (i.e., total operating revenue minus expenses) for a private station has fallen from an average of $755,000 in 2007 to $488,000 last year. That’s a drop of more than a third,” says Hirsch.

“The reason isn’t a lack of listeners, but, rather, the increased competition among the private stations for advertising revenue. There are only so many dollars worth of advertising time that Alberta companies are willing to purchase, but with a near doubling of the number of stations, the competition is fierce. This has squeezed advertising revenues.”

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